Bears Hire Marc Trestman As Head Coach

LAKE FOREST, IL – The Chicago Bears have reached an agreement with Marc Trestman to become the team’s 14th head coach in franchise history.
Trestman joins the franchise with a champion head coaching pedigree and keen offensive expertise. Over the last five seasons as head coach in the Canadian Football League, Trestman led the Montreal Alouettes to back-to-back Grey Cup championships in 2009 and 2010 and was named the CFL’s Coach of the Year in 2009. He also helped tutor quarterback Anthony Calvillo to back-to-back CFL MVP’s in 2008 and 2009.

Trestman has 17 years of coaching experience in the NFL, including eight as an offensive coordinator. During his time in the NFL, Trestman helped his teams to eight playoff appearances, two conference championship games and a Super Bowl appearance (XXXVII as offensive coordinator of the Raiders).

Trestman started his coaching career in 1981 at the University of Miami as a volunteer assistant while attending law school. He was named the school’s quarterbacks coach in 1983 and helped direct the Hurricanes to their first-ever National Championship. Under Trestman’s tutelage Hurricanes quarterback Bernie Kosar was selected in the first round of the NFL Supplemental Draft by the Cleveland Browns.

In 1985, Trestman got his first coaching experience in the NFL, under Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bud Grant as the running backs coach of the Minnesota Vikings, a position he held for two seasons.

Trestman moved on to become the quarterbacks coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1987 and would work as a quarterbacks coach in 13 of his 17 NFL seasons. In 1988 he was reunited with Kosar in Cleveland, before adding the title of offensive coordinator a year later, helping lead Cleveland to two playoff appearances including the AFC Championship Game in 1989.

Trestman rejoined the Vikings in 1990 as quarterbacks coach, working two seasons with quarterback Rich Gannon, who improved his QB rating from 68.9 in 1990 to 81.5 in 1991, 11th highest in the NFL.

George Seifert named Trestman the 49ers offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach in 1995 as he guided San Francisco to the No. 1 scoring offense (28.6 points per game) and passing attack (288.0 yards per game) and helped them rank second in total offense (380.4 YPG). A year later, San Francisco had the third best scoring offense (24.9 PPG) and ranked sixth in total offense (344.1 YPG). In 1995 Jerry Rice broke the NFL record for receiving yards with 1,848, a mark that stood for 17 seasons.

Trestman spent the 1997 season as quarterbacks coach of the Detroit Lions. Scott Mitchell threw for 3,484 yards that season, which at the time was second most in team history and now stands as the sixth most.

In 1998, Trestman left the Lions to become the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for the Arizona Cardinals for three seasons. In their first year under Trestman, the Cardinals made the playoffs for the first time since 1982 and won their first playoff game since 1947.

Trestman was hired by Jon Gruden in 2001 to serve as a senior assistant on the Oakland Raiders staff before being promoted by new head coach Bill Callahan to offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach a year later, holding the position for two seasons.

The 2002 Raiders led the NFL in total offense with 389.8 yards and 279.7 passing yards per game, finished second in scoring offense averaging 28.1 points per game and advanced to Super Bowl XXXVII, their first NFL title game appearance in 20 years. Quarterback Rich Gannon was named the NFL’s MVP after throwing for 4,689 yards.

From 2005-06, Trestman served as offensive coordinator of North Carolina State.
In 2007, he worked as a consultant to New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton.
The 57-year old Trestman has also mentored collegiate quarterbacks, including Jay Cutler, as they prepared for the NFL Combine.
Trestman and his wife Cindy have two daughters, Sarahanne and Chloe.

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